Photo-palooza

   It seems like I have so much to update you all on, our second birthing class, our visit with a lawyer about estate planning and second parent adoption, S’s pregnancy….but instead, because it’s Saturday and because I’m in the middle of making a birthday cake and cleaning my house for a small dinner party tonight, I think I’ll just share some pictures of what we have been up to this week.  Oh, and S officially has less than 100 days till Jude’s due date!  Can you believe it?  I was telling S last night that it seems like just yesterday that it was May and she was telling me she was pregnant.  Time is going by so fast, I just can’t wrap my mind around the fact that she is almost 7 months pregnant and I’m going to get to see my little baby boy’s face in less than 100 days.  Yay!
    Back to pictures.  I’ve been wanting to hang a mirror in the nursery to open it up a bit and reflect some of the light from the window, but I’ve been having a hard time finding anything that wasn’t like $150.  Then I realized I had the perfect mirror already hanging in our guest room.  The mirror actually used to be my friend Brandon’s in high school and then when we lived together I ended up with it.  It used to be black and I spray painted the frame red to match the room better.

  Another awesome update to the nursery is my friend Jason made an amazing lamp for Jude’s room.  Jason has a knack for lamps and I couldn’t love the one he made for us more, it fits the room perfectly.

In case it’s hard to see, it’s covered in plastic dinosaurs!  Jude’s going to love it!  I also made some more art for the nursery last night that I think turned out pretty good.

Lastly, I will leave you with a picture of S this week, looking very cute and pregnant!

-Liz

Baby Shower Invites!

My mom is throwing us a baby shower next month in Oklahoma where I mostly grew up and where S and I met and went to college.  It's going to be filled with lots of old friends and family and I am so excited.  My mom ordered our baby shower invites last night and I thought I'd share a sample of what they will look like.  Of course, this is an edited version with all of the exact details taken out, but you can still see how cute they will be!

I love them! 

-Liz

Jude’s kicking debut

 Jude has now kicked 2 people other than Liz and me.  The other night, we were at a friends house when he had a good kick fest, so I laid down and let her feel him kick.  She was delighted and he put on a good show for her.  A few nights later, she kicked B-man 2 solid times.  It was really funny because each time he did it, B-man jumped back like he was burned.  I think he was really shocked by how well you can feel the little guy.  He was kicking like crazy earlier when I was debating on taking the dogs for a walk and is even kicking now.  Note to self- maybe not take dogs for a walk on trash day.  The whole neighborhood is stinky.  We even got behind the trash truck at one point and yuck!

Jude is a very active boy and he is growing!  There is no doubt that I am preggie any more.  My belly is always out and round:)  We have been doing a relaxation technique at night where I tense a muscle and then release (part of our Bradley training) and Liz always says, “now tense Jude’s house” meaning my belly, but honestly, at this point, my whole body feels like Jude’s house!  This little baby has taken over.  The other night, I had my first charlie horse…that was not fun and my calf is still a little bit sore.  My feet have been very swollen at the end of the day, my breathing is restricted if I eat a full meal, and my belly is out a proud:)  My whole body is taken over by baby Jude.  I am 6 1/2 months now, so I am 2 weeks away from the famous 3rd trimester.  I think it is going to be a doozy with how nuts it gets at work and me already feeling pretty full of baby.

The only craving I have been having is salads (I think for the tangy dressing) and pumpkin things.  Liz let me pick out any recipe I wanted and she said she would make it.  I picked out pumpkin bars from Joy the Baker, and man o man, they are delicious!  They are like pumpkin pie with a delicious crust and chocolate chips on top.  I am at the point where I am starving all the time and cannot get enough to eat.  I  did gain 2 lbs. this week.  It is time to grow, so I am not too worried about it.  That brings my total weight gain to 15 lbs. now.  The dr. at my last appointment said I should gain an average of a pound a week at this point.  Oh little Jude-you are going to get so big!  Right now he is about 2 lbs.  It is very strange to carry his 2 lbs. self and all his stuff on the front of me all the time!

I really like the Bradley class.  It is very informative and I like the exercises.  It makes me feel like I am doing something now for the birth later on down the road.  I have been pretty good about them, but did slack off a few days because I was just too tired after work to do anything other than put my feet up.  Liz says I am still doing more than I was, so it is good:)

I am not looking forward to my next Drs. apt.  This is the one where they do the diabetes test.  I am not worried about the test, but I have to fast from 12pm-10am the next day.  I go in and they make me drink a sugary drink and then I have to stay there for 2 hours and they draw blood every hour.  I am not going to feel very good not eating for that long.  Plus, I am not excited to hang out in their waiting room for 2 hours!  I guess once this one is done, as long as the results come back fine, I won’t have to do it again, so that is good.  I am going to bring the computer with some shows to watch, so I am hoping the time flies!

I am still enjoying being pregnant.  I love his little kicks.  I am happy to grow our little baby inside of me.  Liz is a good partner and gives me foot rubs and thanks me for growing our baby all the time.  She is encouraging and sweet and loves me pregnant.  She even likes how forgetful I am and says it makes her feel more together which is funny.  I am looking forward to our baby showers and Liz and I are both excited to meet our little boy.  I keep telling her to quit telling him that so that he stays in for a few more months, but I am just as excited about his arrival as she is.

I am a little nervous about the birth, but the Bradley class is helping by educating me on what is going to happen.  I also had one of my employees the other day say that by the end, you are so ready to not be pregnant, that birth becomes less scary.  I still have time to settle into the idea of how he is going to enter the world:)
-S

Bradley Birthing Class and A Belly Pic!

         Wednesday was a big day in our pregnancy filled world.  Wednesday morning S had a doctor’s appointment, the last monthly doctors appointment.  Dang, can’t believe that starting next month she will be in her 3rd trimester and going to doctor’s appointments every other week.  It all goes by so fast (yet at the same time, not fast enough).  This was the first one that I haven’t been able to go with her to, which made me a little sad.  She got to hear Jude’s strong steady heartbeat (this time he did not kick the machine) and they did all of the normal measuring the belly sort of stuff and everything looks good.

      Then Wednesday night we had our first Bradley Birthing Class and it was awesome!  If you are unfamiliar with the Bradley method, here is a tiny quote from the Wikipedia page, “The Bradley Method emphasizes that birth is a natural process: mothers are encouraged to trust their body and focus on diet and exercise throughout pregnancy; and it teaches couples to manage labor through deep breathing and the support of a partner or labor coach.”  So basically, there are 12 classes and we meet every Wednesday for two hours each time.  In order to be a Bradley teacher you have to have had a “Bradley” birth yourself, do tons of academic work and go to a week long Bradley teaching seminar amongst other things.  One exciting thing about it is that just by coincidence our teacher (who teaches out of her house) lives about two blocks away from us.  We drove to the first class just to be sure we knew where we were going, but I think that weather permitting (and it’s Austin, so I’m sure the weather will allow) we will walk to and from the rest of the classes, which is cool.  We don’t get to walk to anything, we live in a rather suburban part of Austin, so the only thing we could really walk to is a gas station, which isn’t that exciting.  There are 3 other couples in the class (but only two of the other three were there for this first class) and so far everyone has seemed pretty fine with us being in the class.  We really enjoyed the class, it was fun to hang out with other couples expecting their first baby and of the three of us couples that were there this week we are all expecting boys.  This first class was more of an introduction, so we didn’t do too much but we got sent home with homework- mostly exercises for S to do and a few relaxation things for us to practice each night together.  Over all I think it’s going to be a really good thing for us and I’m excited to keep going. 
 

      And I’ve been meaning to post a new belly shot of S for a week or two now, so here is her most recent photo, though it is a few days if not almost a week old at this point.  Gotta love that beautiful round belly!

-Liz 

Jude’s Jams

Well I’ve been working on a mix CD for baby Jude for quite a while now and I’ve finally made it.  I was feeling a lot of pressure (from myself) to make the perfect mix and have just the right songs with just the right messages and it was too much, so I went a different direction.  I decided to make a mix of some of my favorite songs, after all the point of this CD is to introduce Jude to the music I love in hopes that he will love it as well.  So I just sat down and pulled up what I have today available in my itunes and this is the mix I came up with.  I’m sure it’s not to everyone’s taste, but I really only made it for one person and well, he can’t exactly complain about it yet.
Jude’s Jams
1. Lucky Star- Madonna
2. Sparks- Coldplay
3. Wonderwall- Oasis
4. Home- Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
5. Hello Goodbye- The Beatles
6. Flashdance- Irene Cara
7. Fortunate Fool- Jack Johnson
8.  Young Forever- Jay-Z
9. Stay (I Missed You)- Lisa Loeb
10. Cherish- Madonna
11. Kids- MGMT
12. Clocks- Coldplay
13. Sweet Surrender- Sarah McLachlan
14. Bitter Sweet Symphony- The Verve
15. A Rush of Blood to the Head- Coldplay
16. Hold On- Wilson Phillips
17. Hey Jude- The Beatles
So there you have it.  And by the way, did anyone watch Glee tonight?  The end with them singing Coldplay- Fix You totally  made me cry.  Anyone else?
-Liz

Confession

    I have a small confession to make; I’m addicted to the show Teen Mom.  I know, I know, it’s a ridiculous fake reality TV show and they are making money off of these poor teenagers who got themselves in this bad situation.  But, I can’t help but enjoy it.  You see, when we first found out S was pregnant, I went and put EVERYTHING even slightly baby related into our Netflix watch instantly queue and have watched all sorts of silly (and some great) movies.   So far I/we have watched (from what I can remember): Look Whose Talking, Babies, In The Womb, about 5 minutes worth of Baby Geniuses, Junior, Making Grace, For Keeps, Accidentally on Purpose, Nine Months, The Object of My Affection, The Business of Being Born, Science of Babies, and now Teen Mom.  And while I’m totally into Teen Mom, it is making me a bit nervous about being a stay at home mom.  I think that it’s given me at least a little bit more of an idea of what it will be like to be at home alone with a baby, and frankly, it looks hard.  It’s been a really long time since I was last around a baby for more than just an hour or two, so I’m starting to think that I’m not remembering all of the crying and diapers and stress a baby can bring quite a clearly as I think that I do.  Hopefully little Jude isn’t a colicky baby who cries all day and hates life, hopefully he will be the happy little joyful boy that I’ve imagined him to be.  And if not, well at least I’m not a broke, futureless18 year old with a looser boyfriend who I fight with all of the time and who doesn’t help with anything.   And at least I won’t be crying on TV if I am crying at all (it’s one of my goals in life to never be on TV crying).  So, anyone else a Teen Mom fan that will admit it?  Oh and by the way, S thinks I’m totally ridiculous and refuses to watch it at all

-Liz

Who’s belly button is that and the ninja inside

There are a lot of things that change when your pregnant.  The one I find the strangest so far is my belly button.  It used to be a huge cave and is almost flush right now.  I imagine I will have the “turkey’s done!”  belly button before the end of this pregnancy.  I always think those are so cute (and hilarious) on people, so I am not really worried about it.

Yesterday, I was a little worried about Jude.  He only gave me 2 tiny kicks, that could have been something else, before about 1pm.  He usually has 5 good kicking sessions by then.  I decided the best thing to do was get a massage and relax, so in the middle of my work day, I went and had a preggo massage.  What was funny about it was that the woman that massaged me was also pregnant, so we talked babies thru most of it.  Jude decided that it was the perfect time to high kick me, so I felt better.  That night, we were laying around watching Modern Family (brilliant show I might add) and Jude started really kicking.  I laid on my back with the belly towards Liz and let her feel the craziness going on inside me:)  I do love his little kicks, but the cool part was Liz felt each kick clearly.  She even said he moved her hand a few times.  He was kicking so hard that she is a little worried about what he is going to do once he weighs more than a pound and a half!  I have to admit, I am a little scared too as some of his kicks take my breath away already.  I love it so much though, that I am more excited then anything!

On a negative note, I got a message from my mom a night ago that really upset me.  She said she was probably going to skip the baby shower.  I felt so hurt that she would not be really excited about her first, and honestly  maybe her only, grandbaby’s shower.  With my mom, there are 2 ways to do things.  1. I can spare her feelings like I have for years and just say, “okay, it’s fine” or 2. my more recent approach of being honest with her.  She has not taken the 2nd one very well, but as Liz pointed out, I should probably be honest with her even if it is not always great.  So, I called her and told her I was very surprised she was not over the moon about going to the shower.  She broke down and explained that she does not do social gatherings very well and it would cost a lot of money.  We finally agreed on her coming to the shower in Austin instead of the one in Tulsa.  She feels like she knows my friends (??) and would feel more comfortable there than at the one with people she doesn’t know.  Okay, that’s fine.  I thought it was a good conversation and then she sent me an e-mail being her usual dramatic self. Sigh, and then she wonders why we don’t jump on the chance to come for a visit.

All in all the pregnancy is going well at this point.  I do keep staring at this big belly in the mirror.  It is so funny to me.  Liz is taking good care of me.  The other night, we were going to go to a movie, but I was too tired and then I was upset I was so tired.  She suggested we just rent a movie and make a cozy palate to cuddle up on.  We did that and then she rubbed my shoulders and feet and read me to sleep.  It was a nice, preggie chill, date night for us.

I did weigh myself this morning and have lost a pound and a half.  Not intentional, but I think between my stomach not feeling great most of the time and being busy, I am just not eating enough.  I even packed in some high calorie foods this week, but it did not seem to be enough.  I am not really all that worried about it since I was overweight to begin with.  I know that Jude is getting what he needs and I am the one missing out.  But still, at 6 months pregnant, weight should be going up, not down.

I am really enjoying little Jude being with me all the time.  I am at the point where I am feel pretty good, and he is active, so it is pretty amazing and fun right now.  I am really excited that Liz is starting to clearly feel him move around too.  I don’t think it will be very long until others can feel him also.  I have a whole bunch of people at work just dying to feel the little guy.  I think work is going to throw me a baby shower also.  That will be 3 showers!  Already little Jude has so much love around him!
-S